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A New Jersey Thanksgiving

Posted on November 25, 2012 by Shaina Mishkin '14

"Only a couple more days," I found myself thinking as I trekked across campus in clothes that would be considered foolish for the 30-degree weather I was walking to class in, "a couple more days until break."
Of course, I had a few more reasons for looking forward to heading back to New Jersey for Thanksgiving break than to do the laundry I had been putting off for too long. Thanksgiving held promise of warm meals, friends and family, a break from my end-of-semester workload, and, of course, a glorious shower without flipflops. As my dad, little sister and I slowly rolled our way through the 5-hour crawl that is I91 in Thanksgiving traffic, I looked forward to what I knew would be a packed weekend.

When we finally pulled into the driveway, my mom and big sister Cara were home and waiting. The tiny reunion, as expected, led to a host of ridiculous games of Scrabble, one of which I actually almost won for once. Thanksgiving was very much the same, with the board making a few more appearances throughout the day.

Before I continue with what I did the next day, I feel the need to justify my participation in the awful idea that was Black Friday. I learned the hard way that this pseudo-holiday is not a game for the weak. After a pancake breakfast that morning, my two sisters and I decided we would head to the mostly-unpopulated mall in our area; the tiny bundle of shops hit its heyday in the late 90s, and the remaining four or five shops in the huge space seldom receive any notable sort of patronage. I wanted to grab some winter clothes before heading back to the Valley, so we decided to give the normally deserted mall a shot. Three hundred-person lines later, we returned home, a little discouraged and a little bit wiser. A little while afterwards, I met up with Alexa, my friend from high school, to do what we do best: trade hyperbole about Black Friday, gossip about school and watch funny Youtube videos.

I spent the next day doing a shoot a musician I know from high school who's producing his own electronic music now. He was totally on board with the weird photo ideas I had for him; you can check out some of the LED and projector-fueled photos over here.

It finally came time to say goodbye to my big sister and, soon, the rest of my family as I readied myself to return to UMass. The difference between UMass, where something's always going on, and home, where things are far more subdued and there's far less I need to get done, is a little jarring sometimes, but if this Thanksgiving was a teaser trailer for the month-long winter break coming up in a few weeks, I'll be happy.

This semester, two UMass Amherst students are roving the campus and beyond showing their view of student life through the eyes of their camera lens. Check back often to ViewMass to see the latest views as the year rolls on.